Jazz Powell-Loggins told 7 On Your Side Investigates, "I'm not a person to answer calls." But, she broke her rule on July 13, picking up a call from a number she didn't recognize. "And it was panic, panic immediately. 'Hey, some- someone's trying to sell your money out of your account, and I'm trying to help you. Hey, and by the way, by the way, I'm a representative of Charles Schwab.' And I said, what do you mean someone- I said, I don't understand what. Relax. You're- I don't understand. I can't hear you. And he was really loud, and he kept getting louder. I said, what are you talking about?"
After about two minutes, Jazz says she cut the scammer off to take a call from her doctor. Then, an alert crossed her cellphone's screen - wire transfer complete. The entire amount, $12,145, was gone.
"That was devastating for me," Powell-Loggins said, "Because I- my job was to make sure that my son got out of college with no debt and to help him, fulfill his dreams."
Jazz also tells us the medical bills are mounting as her husband battles cancer, and that she's out on disability after an injury on the job at a big-box warehouse store. So, she appealed to Charles Schwab, and it took them five weeks to send this letter saying under their security guarantee, Schwab "covers losses from unauthorized activity in your accounts," but "our investigation found that you provided the verification code to a third party, allowing them to complete the wire."
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"But you guys are blaming me for an incident that I clearly told you I had nothing to do with," Powell-Loggins said.
Jazz insists she didn't give the scammers any information. Security experts tell 7 On Your Side Investigates that bank accounts, routing numbers, and even PIN numbers are available for a price on the underground marketplace, known as the "dark web".
Jasika Bawa, Project Lead for Google's Chrome Security, said, "I would just say, many pins are very short, like four digits. It can even be brute-forced by an attacker. By brute-forced, we mean they can just guess pins one after another, because they're a bit too short."
Bawa tells us the scammers in this case may have been trying to divert Jazz's attention with that frantic phone call, while they raided her account.
"There might be informational alerts from the bank that would say, 'Hey, by the way, like, you know, $1,000 was just moved from this place to another,'" Bawa said. "But while you're on the phone, you know, being bombarded with this, like, stressful information from the attacker, you might miss that kind of information."
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When we contacted the company, Schwab declined to provide anyone for an on-camera interview but sent a statement, in part, "We sympathize with Ms. Powell-Loggins, whose experience is an unfortunate example of growing imposter fraud... We advise our clients to be cautious, stay vigilant, protect their personal information."
They chose not to answer any of the follow-up questions we emailed. Among them:
- What could Schwab have done to prevent this from happening?
- Should a withdrawal for an account's entire balance trigger any sort of alarms or extra scrutiny by the company?
- What evidence do you have of Jazz Powell-Loggins providing a verification code to the scammers?
She adamantly denies providing any information on that frantic call. "I've shown nothing but integrity and hung out with this company. And for them to tell me, we believe you have something to do with it. We're not giving you back a dime. Good riddance. That was devastating to me."
She's not giving up. Jazz Powell-Loggins is taking her case to arbitration. She has also contacted local police and the FBI. There are clues to follow in this case. The transaction record shows that her money went to a bank in Ohio.